Lincolnwood : What is the former railroad name near Lou Malnotti's? (Chicago: foreclose, neighborhood)

[jojopuppyfish]

Here is the google link:
What deserted railroad is this? HERE

How feasible is it to turn it into a bicycle trail?

[MSchemist80]

The line was constructed in 1903 as the Chicago Northern Ry. from Mayfair to Lake Bluff, IL, a distance of about 22 miles. It served as the principal freight route to Milwaukee for the Chicago & North Western, bypassing the suburbs along Lake Michigan to the east. In 1912, the "New Line" between Proviso and Milwaukee superseded it as the main freight line, although the "New Line" did subsume a portion of the Chicago Northern from Valley at the Lake-Cook county line to Skokie Jct. (Tower KO) on the west side of Lake Forest. After the North Shore Line electric interurban went out of business in 1963, the C&NW obtained the North Shore Line trackage between Dempster St. in Skokie and Valley and abandoned the original Chicago Northern ROW that paralleled it immediately to the west. This accomplished two things: 1) The CTA could not resume North Shore Line service to the detriment of the C&NW's commuter service on the Milwaukee Division (Chicago to Kenosha - today's "Metra UP-North"); and 2) The C&NW could sell off the Chicago Northern property for commercial or industrial development. The last major freight use of the portion of the Chicago Northern south of Valley was for Wisconsin Electric coal trains received by C&NW from the Belt Railway of Chicago at 40th St. Yard about 4 miles south of Mayfair. When the C&NW was threatened by corporate raiders and before it was rescued by the UP, they tried to sell off everything non-essential, and the south end of the Chicago Northern between Mayfair and Oakton St. in Skokie was one of the lines sold.

So, today we have the following: 1) Mayfair to Oakton St. railbanked for future CTA use (over the dead body of the Village of Lincolnwood, I might add) - the far southern end has already been "appropriated" by bicycle interests and the City of Chicago for an elevated bike path; 2) Oakton St. to Dempster St. original Chicago Northern ROW still owned by UP but with railroad removed; 3) Dempster St. to Valley original North Shore Line ROW with railroad being removed as we speak - this ROW is actually an easement on ComEd power line ROW and it would not "revert" to anyone as the UP (mistakenly) suggested.

The current interest in a biker/hiker trail is to permanently foreclose the possibility of a CTA extension from Skokie to Northbrook Court, a Metra extension from Mayfair up the "New Line", or a Pace "Bus Rapid Transit" highway, none of which are now, or ever will be, acceptable to the Villages of Northfield and Northbrook. I think, btw, it was the rail passengers, not the bikers, who were the feared criminals.

imo, one of the worst things the C&NW did was abandon this line. It would be a great Metra route and, after the UP merger, would have allowed all C&NW trains from Milwaukee to run via the BRC to Clearing Yard and perhaps on to Yard Center, thereby freeing up capacity on the "New Line" west of Valley that could be used for Metra service to O'Hare. Oh well!

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I might add that the portion of this line between Lake Cook RD and Rt 176 in Lake Bluff is now the Skokie Valley Bikeway. The portion in Cook Country between Lake-Cook and Skokie had been planned to become a southern extension of this trail and there were plans and meetings I believe back in 2008 but those plans appear to be shelved.

Part of the Right of way in Skokie I beleive is approved for conversion to a bike trail and part in Chicago between Devon and Bryn Mawr already is. The rest I guess is not.

edit
I guess the southern extension is still a possibility but is years away at least
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-13494DC55A513690.html

[jojopuppyfish]

thanks......so they are aware of that line and are doing nothing about it.

I live in washington dc now and a similar thing is going on with an old trolley line from dc to Glen Echo

[jojopuppyfish]

In all honesty, you'd think the people of lincolnwood would want a rail going from their neighborhood to downtown chicago. The two options, living there, are the highway or local roads. Driving to the skokie swift is somewhat in the vicinity.
But that rail path goes all the way downtown

[pvande55]

There was a line from Mayfair to Lake Bluff but I believe it passed to the west of where the OP was asking about. I am pretty sure this was the old Mayfair cutoff, also a C & NW line, running between Mayfair and Evanston. At the time of abandonment the only remaining customer was the CTA at Skokie, where new railcars were delivered.

[reppin_the_847]

Sad that we once had a better passenger rail infrastructure than we have today.

[cubssoxfan]

Originally Posted by reppin_the_847

Sad that we once had a better passenger rail infrastructure than we have today.

Sure it's "sad" but do you understand the history of why so many lines went away?